Senate Israel/Palestine

I think they like capital punishment as a threat in order to get more people to settle for sentences. Particularly in California cause they love the slave labor. I don't think the gov broadly actually believes in getting rid of capital punishment more than it supports it. If anything people making gestures just indicates that opposing it in rhetoric has become useful with a more vocal opposition, while they are secure in knowing it wont be removed by authorities

 

In other, topic-related news, there's a good bit of effort being put in to deny Netanyahu and MBS may have just met.

 

https://www.btselem.org/press_relea...rime_and_paints_palestinians_as_the_offenders

 

They always do that to save face on the Saudi side.

Israel and the Saudi's have been sharing Intel on the Iranians (and before that Saddam Huessein in Iraq)since the mid 1990's but because the royal family likes to use the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to distract there own populace from their own oppressive policies they cannot publically acknowledge that they do.

Its a case of the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

 

didn't that guy die by beheading?

 

You really gotta narrow that down

 

i read that the guy who said it was beheaded but can't find the name. think he was a prince but cant remember.

 

The quote about the guy being beheaded, comes from Star Trek Into Darkness:

Kirk: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Spock: An Arabic proverb attributed to a prince who was betrayed and decapitated by his own subjects.
Kirk: Well, it's still a hell of a quote.

However, apparently it's first recorded in a Sanskrit text, and the writer is not thought to have been beheaded:

https://slate.com/culture/2013/05/s...my-enemy-guy-really-killed-by-his-friend.html

 

Thank you Mr. Spock

 

I worked with a guy who was a LA homicide detective for 26 years. He said they basically only ever thought of the death penalty as a bargaining chip, to say "hey plead and we'll take the death penalty off the table".

So yeah, they just use it like the thugs they are. Which is basically just as bad.

 

Jesus that is sad.

 

Here we go again.

 

And I used to think changing governments every 8 months on average was peak political instability...

 

More along the lines of parliamentary diarrhea, with a side of incontinence.

 

Meanwhile, in Israel...

 

https://electronicintifada.net/content/ireland-clings-advice-disgraced-judge-israel-trade/31986
Very upsetting. The Occupied Territories Bill must be passed and it is unforgivable for Ireland of all nations to not fight this. Gerry Adams was right when he said

 

That’s disgusting. US aid to Israel should be halted immediately upon Biden‘s first day in office until this is reversed. It should be halted anyway, but this is the perfect opportunity to punish the Netanyahu government for its horrific behavior.

 

Yup they don’t call out Hamas or hezbullah for there crimes either.

Many countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan have some of the worse human rights abuses too. Even women are abused terribly by those regimes

I am shocked that some feminist who are anti Israel don’t acknowledge and point out the problem too happening in certain parts of the Muslim world.


I am not accusing anybody on the boards of support the extremists which we already made clear about. Yet there also been a time under ehud Olmert term of Israeli women in his administration being raped too

 

I don't mean any offense or anything, but usually whenever people say "look at Hamas and Hezbollah, they're violent and terrible" it's a way to deflect attention from Israel's injustices which is what's driving the conflict. No, Israel doesn't carpet-bomb civilians, but what they are doing is stealing and annexing the Palestinians' territory and pissing them off, and this drives them towards violent extremism. After what Israel has done to push and provoke the Palestinians, is it a surprise that some of them end up turning to violence? If we want to decrease the violence and decrease the support for extremism, then at the minimum Israel needs to stop stealing and annexing Palestinian territory, and ease up on the blockade.

Also yes, much of the Muslim world does have some pretty bad human rights records, but this region has little to no history or tradition of liberal democracy, so should we really be holding them to higher standards? Not to mention, a country's bad human rights record doesn't mean territorial aggression against them is justified...just look at the first Gulf War where we defended Kuwait against Iraq.

 

Yup and Iraq had 16 UN violations from the international community under Saddam Husseins regime.

Saddam killed more people than Bin laden did.

 

Absolutely yes. To do anything less is a cop-out and allows 'whataboutism' arguments that defend Israel's behavior to flourish. It may not be obvious, but asking people to treat each other with dignity and respect should not be dependent on what type of government they live under. That line of thinking plays straight into Netanyahu's hands, and harms efforts to force meaningful change to Israeli policy.

 

I mean this is just some straight up comic book villainy from them.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/wor...fUZiX0dNFazZOS1VUFCMaE99tQat97d0YFrcKV1m6ywb4

This isn't an old story, and it's constantly happening. We should be holding countries to higher standards.

 

Weird slightly related fact about the Olmert administration.

My grandmothers cousin, whom i have never met, was the star witness in his bribery trial

My grandmothers cousin Bribed Olmert when he was Minister of trade to facilitate business meetings with hotel owners.